No embellishments

At Charisma Cardz challenges this week the theme is No embellishments - I didn't think it would be that hard but it really was tough staying away from the flowers, buttons, ribbons and all the other bits and pieces that usually go into the card design these days. When I started making cards - quite a few years ago now - I didn’t use much in the way of embellishments but trends have changed and these days it seems that more is well and truly more! We all have pots full of buttons, reels & reels of ribbon, boxes of brads, bunches of flowers, chipboard this and that - the list is endless really, but sometimes it's good to let the image take the spotlight and this is what I've tried to achieve today. 

I wanted a nice bright and cheerful card so chose some Basic Grey papers from the Life of the Party set, the image, which I coloured with my Promarkers, is from Can you Digi it and 10% of its sales are donated to charity and the sentiment is a freebie from Simply Homemade magazine.

 

The challenges I'm entering:
I Love Promarkers - Anything goes
Paper Shelter Challenge - Layers on layers
The Perfect Sentiment - Anything goes  
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Off the edge 
LEJ Designs - Anything goes 
Paper and Such Design - Wings’n’things 
365 Cards - Stripes 
Make it Monday - Always anything goes  
Whoopsi Daisy  - Two patterned papers

Something a bit different

For this week’s challenge at Squigglefly try out a new TECHNIQUE or use a favorite old one! Just make sure if you want to be in the running to win a free digi image - you will need to use a squigglefly image, and there are several freebies on the Squigglefly site to pick from!

I decided to do a bit of Art Journalling which is pretty new to me and chose to use the Squigglefly image Twin Dollies by Lulu Lancaster which I coloured with my Promarkers then cut out and stuck into the journal which I had already coloured and added texture to with acrylic paints, I stamped the flowers and then added the journalling with alphabet stamps, then finished it all off with a variety of doodling.

 

Challenges entered:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything but a card 
Robyn’s Fetish - Use a digi
Pattie’s Creations - Anything but a card
Stampotique Designers’ Challenge - altering
Make it Monday - Always anything goes 
The Cutie Pie Challenge - Borders and frames 
Annabelle Stamps Challenge - Colour inspiration 
Deep Ocean Challenge - Deep blue

Monochrome Madness

Good morning, it feels like ages since I've been here although it's not actually been that long but I have been so busy it seems longer! Last night my husband, Neil, and I went to see our lovely daughter Lynsey May reading a new short story as part of an evening of magic and illusion at the Edinburgh Book Festival and totally enjoyed it, I love Edinburgh during festival time - there is such a great buzz about it and hearing the fantastic reaction to Lynsey and her work made us really proud parents :o) If you would like to see more about Lynsey and her stories visit her blog.

So, onto today's new challenge at Charisma Cardz where the theme this week is Monochrome Madness for my dt card I used a stencil and distess inks to create the background along with a stamped and die cut bird from Paper Artsy which I also distressed around the edges to add a bit of dimension. The paper came via one of our design team paper swaps, the bow is from Papermania and the sentiment is also from PaperArtsy.

I'm entering the following chalenges:
Creative Belli - Wings
Inky Impressions - Pearls/bling  
Bearly Mine - Anything with wings
Cards und More - Anything goes 

Lexi's Creations - Sparkle and shine

Love to Create - Sparkle 

Make it Monday - Always anything goes 

Penny Black and More - Whiskers and/or Wings

That Craft Place - Things with Wings 

Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings

Sorry this is such a short post this morning but have left this to the last minute and I've got to post and run off to work very soon!

The theme is Black, white and grey at Squigglefly this week and I've used the fabulous Dragon Fly Garden by Diana Garrison because the image is so beautifully detailed that it doesn't need any

colour to make a stunning card, the backing paper is 100% cotton by Papermania and has a soft brushed feel to it. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Clearly Inspired - Things with Wings 

Pattie's Creations - Animals / Insects 

Totally Papercrafts – Monochrome

4 Crafty Chicks - Distressing

Forever Friends - Black and White

Twisted Thursday - Anything Goes with twist Things that Fly 

Scrapbook Sisters - Things with wings

Catered Crop - White (somewhere on your project) 

Great Impressions - Anything with Animals 

That Craft Place - Things with Wings  
 

Go floral

Today I'm sharing my last dt project for the Cardmadfairy's Digi Days challenge, the rest of the design team and I are taking an extended break to give us all time to try new things, catch up with old things or just relax and not do any things!! The theme of our final (for now) challenge is Go floral - use digi images of flowers to create a card, scrapbook page or any other project. Flowers can either be your focus or embellishments as long as you use digi images.

I have used the Lily image and printed it directly onto the white card then printed it again on two different patterned papers and used them to paper piece, only adding glue in the centre to give the flower some dimension. I added a metal flower with a brad through the centre and some flatbacked pearls to finish it off. The sentiment is by Heidi Swapp and the papers came with a recent copy of Craftseller magazine.

I'm entering the following:
Divas by Design - Flowers
Paper Pretties - Thank you cards
Tuesday Throwdown - Doodling
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Crafty Ribbons - Spots & dots
Do You Stack Up? - Polka dots
One Stitch At A Time - Use a digi

Pink and one other

This week at Charisma Cardz the challenge is to use only the colour pink and one other. In my case I chose brown and for a change decided not to use a stamped or a digi image and instead just used die cuts to create my card, stamping only the sentiment which is from Stampin Up. I like the simplicity of the design and using only the two strong colours has made what I hope is quite a striking card!

Our sponsors for this challenge are Simon Says Stamp who are offering one lucky winner a $20 voucher for their store,  Pink Cat Studio who will supply another winner with 5 digis of their choice and finally we also have a prize from the fab Crafty Ribbons store - 3 great reasons for joining in this week!
 

I am entering my card for these challenges:

A & T Emerald Faeries Challenge - Flourishes & swirls

Crazy Amigo Challenge - Dies & punches

Creative Craft Challenges - Summertime  

Kaboodle Doodles - Birthday or any special day  

Make it Monday - Always anything goes 

Victorine Originals - Summertime 

Dream Valley Challenges - Summer  

The Crafty Pad - Things with wings

Divas by Design - Flowers 

Scrapbook Sisters - Things with wings